As light radiates through space it spreads due to diffraction, a wave effect. This wave effect limits the resolution of the human eye and other electromagnetic imaging devices, such as microscopes and telescopes. In 1873, physicist Ernest Abbe expressed this limit as: d=λ/2(n sin θ), where “d” is the diameter of a resolvable spot, “λ” is the wavelength of light, “n” is the index of refraction of the transmitting medium, and “θ” is the spot angle. This limit was later expressed by astronomer W. R. Dawes in terms of aperture: R=11.6/D, where “R” is the angular separation in arc seconds between two resolvable points, and “D” is the aperture in centimeters of the viewing device.
Since then, astronomers have addressed the diffraction limit by building telescopes with increasingly larger apertures, primary mirrors, and objective lenses. However, as the size of the telescope increases, the costs associated with building and maintaining the telescope skyrocket to prohibitive levels. Using these large powerful telescopes is far out of the reach of amateur astronomers, and even governments struggle with the costs of running large telescopes. Thus, there is a demand in astronomy for a new practical low-cost method for increasing telescope resolving power.
In microscopy, information on relevant attempts to increase resolution can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,570 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,588. However, each one of these references disclose systems that require highly controlled scanning environments, ill-suited for applications where the imaging object is not easily manipulated, such as star systems hundreds of parsecs from Earth. These systems are further limited by their complex controls, unwieldy size, extreme delicacy, slow imaging speed, and the high costs associated with building and running the systems. Thus, there is a demand in microscopy for a new practical low-cost method for increasing microscope resolving power.